Billboards in the New Millennium The Map Pin

For those born in the last millennium, directional billboards were a point of driving entertainment, as well as useful by local businesses to capture attention and acquire customers from drive-by traffic. The downside is billboards are expensive, have a very short visibility window and offer little in ROI trackability.

So, is there a better way to geo-target nearby customers? Absolutely! With the popularity of mapping software, how about ads right on the map?

Yeah, I have seen those but do they really work? And, I bet they are expensive, hard to set up, and like everything else nowadays, require a long-term contract.

Not true! Pins can be bought for single locations and for as short as 30-days at a time. This makes it perfect for small retailers, real estate sales and event marketing. The CPM (costs per 1,000 impressions) is comparable to other digital advertising. Moreover, you get actual view, click and drive to stats. 

Case in point: Articulon recently used pins on Waze as an add-on promotion for the Triangle Parade of Homes. Approximately 10% (30 homes across the Triangle) participated. Over the 30-day period the pins were active, the pins received more than 475,000 driving impressions, nearly 2,000 search impressions and a CTR (click rate) of .11%. In comparison, according to Smart Insights, in 2019 the average digital display ad CTR is just 0.05% across all ad formats and placements.

Pins are just the start. For an additional cost, there are options for pop-up ads and in-app coupons/deals. So if geo-targeting and traffic-driving are important to your business, it is worth your time to look at map pins as part of your ad mix.